Horse polo is an old sport that dates back to the 6th century BC, originating in Persia. It is considered one of the world’s oldest team sports. Polo is played on horseback where players use mallets to hit a ball through goal posts to score. It is a fast-paced game that requires skilled horsemanship, teamwork and athletic prowess.
While polo has a long and storied history, today it often carries connotations of elitism and exclusivity associated with old money and high society. But is modern polo truly only a sport for the ultra-rich? In this article, Kirill Yurovskiy analyzed the cost, availability, and public perception of this equation of sports.
The Costs of Playing Horse Polo Professionally
Playing polo professionally, whether as an amateur or pro, incurs significant costs that can limit accessibility for less affluent players. From equipment and horses to facilities and transport, expenses quickly add up.
Equipment Expenses
A full set of regulation polo equipment per player runs $5,000-$10,000. This includes mallets, helmets, knee guards, boots, bandages, gloves, and more. These items require frequent replacing, especially mallets and helmets which can get damaged. This cost alone prices out many.
Boarding and Transporting Horses
Maintaining and transporting horses is perhaps the biggest expense. Professionals cannot play without multiple well-trained, athletic horses. Board runs $1,500-$2,500 monthly per horse. Trailers to transport horses cost $75,000+. Multiply each horse’s costs over months and years – it’s easy to see why only the wealthy have historically participated.
Accessibility and Diversity in Horse Polo
The perception exists that horse polo remains locked behind old money and privilege. What steps have opened access for less wealthy or diverse players?
Polo Scholarships and Programs for Underprivileged Youth
Some organizations like the United States Polo Association administer programs and scholarships aimed at introducing polo to disadvantaged youth. These outreach efforts expose young potential players to a sport they may not have access to otherwise and develop talent that could diversify the sport at higher levels in the future. Still, scholarships remain limited.
Many point to polo being added to more public universities and schools as a missing piece in diversifying the pipeline at a faster rate. But budgets to support teams at public schools remain low, hampering accessibility.
The Profile of a Typical Horse Polo Player
Stereotypes peg the typical polo player as an ultra-wealthy, white male with elite connections. And while there is truth earlier in the sport’s history, that profile is expanding. Today’s rising stars include Argentinian Delfina Blaquier on the women’s side and teens like 17-year old African American McKayla Langmeier.
Still, many note much more progress needs to be made opening access for women and minorities to reach parity with their wealthy white male counterparts who dominate the highest competitive polo circles. Even with rising diverse stars, horse polo continues to trail other sports in demographic representation at its top tiers.
The Perception of Horse Polo as an Elite Sport
Horse polo’s long association with nobility and old money prove challenging for shedding enduring stereotypes. For decades it personified leisure class excess and blue blood connections.
While that elite aura persists today, it presents a hurdle attracting mainstream audiences and everyday athletes to the sport in many countries. Terms like “country club sport” remain firmly attached to its image even as some push polo to widen its reach globally both in terms of class and geography.
Efforts to Make Horse Polo More Accessible and Inclusive
A few key efforts attempt to make the sport more egalitarian on the player and spectator side:
- Public universities and schools launching teams and scholarships
- Youth programs like California’s Beach Polo suitable for any rider
- Promoting arena polo which needs less horses per team
- Creating highlight reels and content aimed beyond niche media
While helpful increments, horse polo participation remains disproportionately tilted towards high net worth individuals despite slow diversification of pros. But some point to golf’s trajectory which took decades transitioning from elite hobby to popular sport as a possible model over the long-term.
Assessing the State of Exclusivity in Modern Horse Polo
Horse polo clearly faced massive barriers to accessibility for the non-wealthy since its inception. And deep association with luxury and privilege persist today. Recent decades ushered measured progress through scholarships, youth programs and incremental rule changes opening access.
But participation rates still skew heavily upper class, especially at high competitive levels. Significant costs involved with horses, equipment, and facilities impose largely insurmountable financial barriers for most. While the profile of top pros diversifies slowly, the pace frustrates those wishing to speed widespread inclusion.
Ultimately, horse polo remains well entrenched as a sport for the economic elite. But hope exists that over generations its trajectory could follow golf’s lead democratizing more widely. Though it may take concerted, continuous effort across multiple dimensions like cost cutting equipment innovations, sponsorships, media spotlighting Everyman heroes, and facilities investing in inclusion before horse polo’s exclusionary perception fades into history.
